Catholic Leaders See Wider Mission in Lower Enrollments

Beset by enrollment declines and financial pressures, Roman Catholic
educators are examining ways to broaden the church's traditional
emphasis on parochial schools by promoting a "cradle-to-grave'' view of
religious education.

As the number of students in Catholic schools has
declined--shrinking by 50 percent over the past 20 years--an increasing
number of Catholic educational organizations have been formed to serve
those outside the school population.

"We will probably see the core of formal schooling continue to
shrink, but there will be an explosion in the group around the core,''
said Brother Raymond Fitz, president of the University of Dayton, where
representatives from 22 Catholic organizations gathered late last month
for a symposium on the church's future educational mission.

"We need to look at education as cradle to the grave,'' said Brother
Fitz, employing a theme that was expanded upon in a series of
statements issued at the end of the meeting.

Catholic schools that survive the current fiscal and enrollment
crunch, other educators predicted last week, will be more financially
stable, more religiously oriented, and more focused on service as
community "education centers,'' with programs for younger children and
adults.

The participants at the Dayton conference called on the church to
"develop more effective uses of our changing resources'' and "to renew
existing structures and create new ones for the delivery of education
to all peoples.''

Not 'Dropping the Schools'

The principal sponsors of the symposium were the National Catholic
Educational Association and the United States Catholic Conference, the
administrative arm of the American bishops.

Most of the 300 participants were from organizations established for
constituencies outside the schools, including the National Catholic
Young Adult Ministry, the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, the
National Office for Black Catholics, and the National Conference of
Diocesan Directors of Religious Education.

While discussion centered on broadening the church's educational
mission, the symposium was "in no way intended to say we are dropping
Catholic schools,'' said the Rev. Thomas G. Gallagher, secretary for
education for the U.S.C.C.

In fact, Catholic educators interviewed last week expressed optimism
that parochial schools were weathering the storms that have rocked the
system since the mid-1960's.

Brother Robert J. Kealey, executive director of the department of
elementary schools for the NCEA, said he saw a "renaissance across the
country as parents and pastors are looking again at the value of
Catholic education.''

"At one time, Catholic educators were defensive; we tried to be like
the public schools,'' Brother Kealey said. "In the last several years,
there has been a re-emphasis on our uniqueness.''

Adapting to New Times

In 1964, 13,000 Catholic schools served 5.6 million students. Since
then, the number of schools has dropped to about 9,000 and enrollment
has fallen to 2.6 million.

The decline has been fueled by a number of factors, according to
experts, including a falling national birth rate, the movement of
Catholics from the cities to suburban areas with no parochial schools,
a decline in the number of nuns available to teach in the schools, and
the increased costs required to pay for lay teachers. (See Education
Week, Sept. 9, 1987.)

In recent years, Catholic educators have turned to professional
fundraising and marketing campaigns to reverse their declining
fortunes.

The Hartford, Conn., archdiocese, for example, this month launched a
five-year campaign to raise $25 million for its schools. About $5
million has already been raised from corporations and individuals,
according to archdiocese officials.

Other ambitious fundraising programs are in place in Philadelphia,
Chicago, and Los Angeles. And in many other dioceses marketing
campaigns to promote the schools have been accompanied by extensive
long-range planning studies to determine where schools should be closed
or consolidated and, in some cases, where new schools should be
built.

Such efforts, said Brother Fitz, will produce a "very healthy core''
of Catholic schools.

Because the Catholic school system is decentralized, he said, each
diocese and parish will have to find different ways to adapt. "It's
going to be very situational,'' he said.

Preschool and 'Faith Centers'

Many Catholic educators seeking renewed enrollment vitality are
looking mainly to the very young. Catholic preschool enrollment has
doubled over the past five years, and the number of children in
parochial kindergartens is at its highest level ever this year, nearly
200,000 children, according to the N.C.E.A.

To Brother Kealey, these figures represent "a sleeping giant.'' He
and other educators say they believe that children who attend Catholic
schools as preschoolers or kindergartners will be more inclined to stay
in the Catholic system later on.

"We are going to start to see slight increases in enrollment in the
lower grades,'' Brother Kealey predicted.

But according to Donald R. McCrabb, director of the Catholic Campus
Ministry Association, schooling is "just one dimension of Catholic
education.''

"If a parish has only a certain amount of resources, and most of it
is going to a school,'' he said, "then other needs aren't being
met.''

To meet these other needs, some parishes have extended the hours
that their school buildings remain open, or have converted vacant
schools into centers for young adults, the elderly, the disadvantaged,
women seeking job training, and other groups.

The St. James Church in Stratford, Conn., has established what it
calls a Faith Formation Center, which includes a school for 380
children and an after-school program for about 500 others who attend
public schools.

The school costs about $500,000 more annually to operate than
tuition brings in, and the parish must pay half of that bill, with the
diocese picking up the other half.

"We're trying to get a better balance [between the school and other
programs],'' said the Rev. Thomas F. Lynch, pastor of the church. "It's
expensive.''

In addition, the pastor is trying to place more emphasis on
instilling Catholic values.

"The Catholic schools should be radically different from the public
school system,'' he said. "We need to take these values and look at
what they say about how to live our lives.''

No comprehensive statistics are available on the number of
religious-education programs outside of the church schools, but church
officials estimate that about 5,000 people now work as full-time
directors of religious education in diocesan offices and in parishes.
No such positions existed 25 years ago.

Some express concern that such activities may supersede, rather than
augment, efforts to boost formal schooling in the church.

'Lukewarm' Support?

While few church leaders would actively discourage investments in
traditional Catholic schools, said Brother Kealey, some bishops and
priests have grown "lukewarm'' in their support.

Some of those leaders, he said, see the schools as a financial drain
on the church and say the money would be better spent on
religious-education and other programs.

That attitude, he noted, is vastly different from the stance taken
in the early part of the century, when newly formed parishes were
admonished to "build the school before the church.''

But pressure from parents, Brother Kealey said, is causing doubters
in the church hierarchy to reexamine their beliefs.

"Parents are going to the pastor and saying, 'We want a preschool.'
It's a very strong movement,'' he said.

Other leaders noted that the church's social ministries have always
been under financial strain. "If our forefathers could do it with
nickels, we can do it with dollars,'' Father Gallagher said.

He argued that the cost of schools is irrelevant because the church
has an educational mission.

"The question is not, 'Can we afford to have our schools?''' said
Father Gallagher. "The question is, 'Can we afford not to have our
schools?'''

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